Xipakna
Born to an influential Sith family, Xipakna was a disappointment from the moment it was revealed that he had no Force-sensitivity. “Upgraded” with numerous cybernetic combat enhancements to make him worthy, Xipakna murdered his parents and joined up with a Mandalorian crew. When they realized he was too violent to control, they gladly accepted Moff Valerius’ offer to take Xipakna on as a special forces soldier. Biography Early Life Xipakna was born to Wishil and Vevdam Mashi. His parents were both Sith Lords working in the Sphere of Scientific Advancement and had high expectations for their firstborn, which he very quickly failed to meet. They had him tested to judge his Force-potential when he was four years old, and had to arrange for the tester to meet an untimely end when Xipakna was found to have no Force-sensitivity whatsoever. Wishil and Vevdam immediately hid their child away to avoid public humiliation, citing a weak constitution. In secret, they used their resources, connections, and scientific knowledge to begin “improving” their son. Xipakna was implanted with his first cybernetics at six years of age, and once they were integrated properly he was given his first test. The Mashis managed to acquire combatants for Xipakna to face off against for the next thirteen years of his life. After every failure, he was further “improved.” After every success, he was “refined.” Every opponent he defeated, he was made to kill, and every opponent that defeated him was slaughtered after being promised prize money by his parents. Salvation Not long after he turned 19, Xipakna was victorious against a disgraced but experienced Sith apprentice that his parents had convinced to fight for them. After he slew the apprentice, Xipakna was congratulated by his parents shortly before he was to be refined once more. Having slaughtered a largely-trained Sith, Xipakna took a chance and attacked his parents. Though Lords, they had spent over a decade focusing on cybernetic enhancements and a droid companion/protector for their child and had neglected their combat and Force studies. After a brief but vicious battle, Xipakna managed to defeat his parents. And as they had taught him, he ensured that his defeated enemies were silenced permanently. Knowing the hell that awaited him for murdering two highly-placed Lords, Xipakna flew with his droid companion. He made his way to the Dromund Kaas spaceport over the next few days, fighting numerous beasts and the occasional Imperial that came too close to discovering him. He stowed away aboard a transport at random, not realizing until he was discovered that the ship belonged to a small band of Mandalorian bounty hunters. The leader, Birk Ajull, saw him for what he was – cybernetics aside, he was a scared and abused child. When Imperials came to search Birk’s ship for Xipakna, the Mandalorians bluffed them and sent them packing. Soon after, they lifted off and made sure Xipakna was fed. Xipakna stayed aboard their ship for the next few weeks, unsure where else to go but refusing to be offloaded anywhere. When he learned that the Mandalorians were fighters, he offered to help. They tried him out and found he was a skilled warrior, and allowed him to join on a few easy missions to get a feel for him. Though he was quick to turn to brutal methods, he proved valuable enough to make a regular member of the team. For two years, they worked together as a team. Xipakna used the technical skills he’d obtained from maintaining and tinkering with his cybernetics to keep their gear functioning and improve on his own systems. When he was around Birk and the rest of the crew, he managed to restrain his more violent impulses, but any time he found himself in combat away from his allies, he returned to the methods ground into him by his parents: ensure no fallen enemy can ever stand again. Life as a Hunter Xipakna’s Cortosis-enhanced armor, and the droid companion who could act as additional armor and shielding, made him formidable on the battlefield. His parents’ insistence that he use melee weapons like the Sith they wished he had been remained an important factor, and he wielded vibroblades for much of his initial time with Birk’s crew. However, after personally taking down two Jedi on one mission, he took their lightsabers and modified them. Boosting their power output and adding beskar crossguards, Xipakna began using his trophy lightsabers exclusively, despite the energy discharges cause by the unstable power increase. During his time with the Mandalorians, he modified his armor and that of his droid to incorporate beskar throughout, making sure he and his companion were as formidable as possible. Two years after joining up with Birk, the crew was given a mission to hijack a shipment of scrap metal and equipment from a rival Mandalorian crew. The mission went relatively smoothly, and Birk’s cargo hold suddenly became home to a host of scrap metal and parts from the Mandalorian Wars. Their employer for this run didn’t need all of the parts, leaving Birk with scrap he didn’t want. Xipakna, however, was fascinated, particularly with a defunct Basilisk war droid. It was too damaged and old to ever get running again, but Xipakna became certain that he could use the parts to further improve himself. He didn’t realize that the rival Mandalorian crew had placed a tracker in the Basilisk, which he then unwittingly incorporated into his droid companion. When the rival crew began showing up at mission after mission, Birk realized that they were being tracked somehow and eventually discovered that the tracker was in the droid. Instead of deactivating it, however, he decided to use it to lure his rivals into a trap. He made Xipakna stay aboard the ship and landed it in a clearing. He and the entire crew, aside from Xipakna and the ship’s pilot, suck off to ambush their rivals. At first the plan seemed to succeed, but their enemies eventually got the upper hand when they managed to set up a weapons emplacement nearby. Birk and his crew were pinned down, and ordered Xipakna and the pilot to flee while they could. At first they obeyed, the pilot kicking the ship into overdrive and flying it straight up. Xipakna had an idea, though, and stopped the pilot while in low orbit directly over the enemy weapons emplacement. Rushing to finish his work adding Basilisk parts to his droid and himself, he opened the cargo hold door and dropped. His droid companion managed to keep them on-course with precise usage of repulsors, and the Basilisk armor, combined with the already-impressive reinforced exoskeleton in Xipakna and the momentum from the free-fall, allowed Xipakna to impact the enemy weapons emplacement directly. Their forces were leveled, and those that survived were too dazed to react as Xipakna waded through them, butchering them where they stood. The impact had severely damaged his droid, but the tactic had worked perfectly. Xipakna had been unhurt and had saved Birk and the crew. After repairing his droid and perfecting the Basilisk-based modifications to it and himself, Xipakna began to use this tactic on a regular basis. The crew referred to him as a “human bunker buster,” and they began to take on more and more dangerous missions. Xipakna became their ace-in-the-hole, and his deployment was often the only required plan. For another two years, their crew went from one amongst thousands of similar crews to an elite, specialized team. Damnation While this did wonders for their personal fortunes and reputation as a crew, it also undid any progress Birk had made in making Xipakna anything more than a killing machine. Xipakna never sensed it, but the man he’d looked to as a father for the last two years had begun to fear him – and the crew followed suit. Eventually, the crew was hired by Moff Maximilian Valerius and, on their swift and brutal completion of their task, the Moff made it clear that he was interested in retaining Xipakna’s services. Birk, who hoped that a life in the Imperial military might help reign in Xipakna’s impulse for bloodshed, helped Moff Valerius to install an advanced restraining program, similar to a restraining bolt, in Xipakna’s cybernetics and droid companion. Xipakna soon saw Birk leaving Valerius’ flagship without him, but was incapable of following after him. Betrayed by the only person he’d ever trusted, Xipakna resigned himself to the service of Valerius. Gear "He was a disappointment to his parents. He was a disappointment to the Mandalorians. Let him pray he is not a disappointment to ''me." -'' Moff Maximilian Valerius, after being briefed on Xipakna's upbringing. Xipakna comes equipped with built-in armor laced with cortosis, courtesy of his parents, and beskar, courtesy of Birk. His combat armor and helmet can be detached, though some covering must replace them for Xipakna to move safely in a non-sterile environment. His weapons, two modified lightsabers, are equipped with mag-generators linked to similar ones in his hands, allowing him to throw and recall his sabers with some accuracy, or even control them mid-flight to a lesser degree. The hilts and crossguards are also laced with beskar. Xipakna's droid companion, which he simply calls "Droid," is similarly equipped. It is a simply monolithic shape that moves by repulsorlift technology and miniature thrusters. Its visual sensor disguises an array of scanners and a light blaster with which it can assist Xipakna in combat. The droid's primary utility, however, is in its ability to attach to Xipakna's armor, adding its mass and defenses to his. This is what allows him to be weaponized as a bunker buster and come out of it ready to fight.